Ligeia is a short story in which an unnamed narrator, husband of the titular Ligeia, watches in distress as his beautiful and intelligent wife succumbs to consumption and dies. Sometime later he remarries, wedding the similarly attractive and erudite Lady Rowena. When Rowena dies the narrator slumps into a fit of melancholy and turns to opium to assuage his misery. He remains with her body overnight and watches in horror as she takes on the form of the deceased Ligeia.